Thursday, March 31, 2016

Spring is here - hopefully weather wise as well - and it's time for a lovely new Fusion Card Challenge.

I was inspired by the blues and the sketch this week.

First I did a watercolor wash over the watercolor paper panel. I die cut the oval out of matboard, inking it by rubbing my Mermaid Lagoon Distress Ink pad over it. Then I flicked water onto it and dried it with my heat tool. I die cut the butterflies also out of mat board and used Tim Holtz' Eroded Metallic Technique on them shown on this post.

So show us what inspires you with this weeks Fusion Challenge! Link your cards up here.

You will find all of the Design Team cards there too - they are also linked below.

I curved the die cut oval egg and kept the curve in it by tying twine around
it. Since this egg is just cardstock, I cut a little slit on each side
to hold the twine on the edges. I doubled up 2 thick foam dots to hold
the center of the egg curved out off the cardbase. I had these feathers for a Thanksgiving project I did with my
grandnieces and nephews last year. (think turkey tails on plastic eggs!)

I layered the gold foil egg to a thicker piece of grungeboard. I again curved
the egg a little and held the curve by tying the ribbon tightly around
the egg while I held the curve. Then I mounted it over the die cut saucer and
panel with two thick foam dots. I added the die cut bunny to the side also with foam dots.

This past Saturday, the Inspiration Challenge was Google It - the Google Art Pinterest board

I used Loll Thompson's Splash Watercolor technique
on everything - using Brushed Corduroy and Worn Lipstick Distress on
the bunnies and bows, Brushed Corduroy and Peeled Paint for the wild
flowers, and Tumbled Glass on the background - all on Arches watercolor
paper. I die cut the EASTER (to look like GOOGLE) using Alphanumeric thinlit dies from Tim Holtz on a piece of thin cork.

All three cards hopped out the door at our Easter Cards and Treats sale at church last Sunday!

Tuesday, March 22, 2016

Have you seen the wonderful Wednesday Tutorial Betty posted over at Splitcoaststampers last week? Here's a link to it. She calls it a slatted basket. I love making treat baskets so I ran right up to my craft room to try it out. This took me less than 15 minutes to score, cut and put together. The base of the basket is 4" x 4" and it stands about 8" tall to the top of the handle.

First you take a double sided 12" x 12" piece of patterned paper or card stock, score, cut and adhere the sides to create the box base. Then you cut 6 strips, center and adhere them across the bottom of the box, fold them up to the top and adhere them under the rim of the box. And to finish - you cut the handle and adhere it inside the box.

You can decorate them with tags, flowers, and stampings of course - but I simply tied a long tailed bow with wrinkled seam tape on mine and called it done! I'll add candy or maybe a small gift - like soap, a candle or body lotion depending on who I present it to!

Then I thought it would be fun to make one for my son. Mind you - he's now 38 years old - but a mother has to give her boy an Easter Basket right?! I always give him a few treats and thought a basket would be much nicer than a plastic shopping bag!

Two things define Josh - he proudly served in the US Army and he loves
to ride motorcycles - and since I didn't have any motorcycle style
patterned paper on hand (none big enough anyway!) and I did have some camouflage paper - the Army theme won out!

I decorated the handle with some Jolee Army stickers that I've had for
ages - so long that the stickers on the backs of them had dried out so I
had to put new ones on!

The other side of the handle with more Jolee Stickers - A duffle bag and a shirt. I added a few treats that he likes - malted milk ball eggs, Reeses
Peanut butter eggs and Cadbury Eggs. I added his name with Idea-ology Label letters.

I knotted a piece of frayed linen ribbon on the top of
the handle - because all Easter baskets have to have ribbons right? But I didn't want it to look feminine. I
thought this would look like an ace bandage that he might have had in
his Army first aid kit!

I think he'll get a kick out of this basket - I know he'll like the treats!

Sunday, March 20, 2016

As I post this with my happy title - they are predicting a snow storm for us starting today into tomorrow morning - a possible 6" in our area - Yikes!! I'm sure it will melt quickly - but it's rather depressing isn't it??!! So I'm going to focus on this delightfully bright and springy image!

The image is an older stamp I had in my Easter stamp draw from Alias Smith and Rowe. I stamped it in Archival Jet Black ink, colored it with Zig Clean Color Markers and then went over the areas with my waterbrush. The sentiment stamp is Wishing Easter from Verses Rubber Stamps.

I die cut the panel with a Stitched Mat Rectangle from Lil' Inker Design and the sentiment with a square Nestability. I adhered the sentiment onto the image panel with foam dots and added Lemonade Blend sequins from Avery Elle.

I dried the background with my heat tool and then stamped the nest from the Bird Feather set using Ranger Distress Ground Espresso ink. I love the look of the splash watercolor. Some of it's a wash and some of it's water spots!

I gold embossed the sentiment from Everlasting Life by Verve on the panel. It really sparkles in the light IRL - you can see that sparkle a bit in the two photos above.

Let us celebrate the triumphant entry of Jesus into Jerusalem this Palm Sunday and his final teachings to his disciples during the week before the sadness of Good Friday when he dies for our sins. How wonderful that Joy returns on Easter Sunday - when He is Risen!

Friday, March 18, 2016

One of the classes I'm taking through Wanderlust (see my side bar) was on Zentangle - which is like a meditative doodling but you doodle specific patterns - each pattern is called a tangle. A Zentagle is a mix of several tangles that you draw with a 1.0 Micron
black pen on a 3 1/2" x 3 1/2" piece of card - preferably Fabriano.
There are rules for this art form - but, of course, you really can do
whatever you want!

So here is my first tangle from the book - it's called Poke Root - and I
made it on a 2" x2" piece of Fabriano card. This is the first time
I've drawn this tangle - it's my practice piece (but now I'll have to
make another since I put this one on my card! And you, obviously, get better each time you draw it.

I decided to make a note card with my tangle - I cut the front flap of the card smaller than the back and adhered the tangle half off the edge of the front - just to kind of spotlight the tangle. I drew this very simply - just doing the Poke Root repeatedly and filling in the spaces with tiny circles - it's really easy using the 01 Micron Pen.

I could either stamp a verse inside behind the front panel - being sure I didn't go past the edge (!) or I could write a note in the same space. The card back measures 4 1/4' x 4 3/4" and the front panel is 2 3/4" x 4 3/4" so it fits into a regular envelope.

It is really fun to Zentangle - and I'm looking forward to practicing and using all of the Tangles that are in the book!

Thursday, March 17, 2016

Happy St. Patrick's Day! - It's also a new Fusion Card Challenge Day - and instead of shamrocks - we're being inspired by Owls!

I was totally inspired by the owls this week rather than the sketch and here's my card:

First I did a watercolor wash on the stitched edge water color paper panel in blue and green. Next, I stenciled the tree. I stamped the owl in Archival black on a piece of Yupo (have you heard of this? it's fairly new - and I'm not really sure how to use it yet - have to check out YouTube!), clear embossed it and then water colored it with Zig Clear Color pens and a water brush. I fussy cut the owl and layered it on the card with foam dots.

What inspires you for this weeks Fusion Card Challenge? The owls or the sketch or will you do both??

About Me

I have loved doing arts and crafts all my life. I live in Massachusetts and am very happily married to Kent who encourages my craftiness! I have one grown son, and two beautiful Russian blue cats.
I started my blog as a place to share my card stamping and paper arts - I hope it inspires you as all of your blogs inspire me!

Copyright

All content including design work, text, and photos is copyright Julia Aston. Everything here is for personal enjoyment only. Please do not use to submit for publication or contests.

FTC Declaration

In accordance with FTC 16 CFR part 255, I declare that I have, or in the past have, received products from the following companies to promote and endorse for free:Waltzingmouse StampsCreations by ARRubbernecker StampsPouch MartSweet n' Sassy StampsPSA EssentialsMark's Finest PapersH&M StampsArtful Inkable Stamps